Ann Widdecombe

The former Tory Minister writes exclusively for the Daily Express

Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge is hardly a Hitler supporter

I AM NOT in the business of defending some of the wilder statements made by members of Ukip but I cannot help feeling that the row over references to Hitler in a training session on oratory has been blown out of all proportion.

Bill Etheridge, a Ukip MEP, was tasked with teaching young members of Ukip how to speak in public.

He referred to Hitler as a "hateful" figure. The choice of word is interesting. If he had said a "hate" figure or a "hated" figure it could have implied neutrality but "hateful" suggests judgment of the right sort.

It is a fact that Hitler's ability to excite a crowd accounted for a great deal of his success as did Churchill's very different ability to inspire determination and take people with him account for much of his success. Both used different but compelling oratory, one playing on grievance, the other on decency. Evangelists use movement and declamatory styles to inspire crowds.

In a different age Cicero enchanted the crowds at the forum with a ringing blend of sarcasm and passion. There is nothing wrong with looking at the techniques of any successful orator if studying oratory.

SO IF the media want to worry about heirs to Hitler perhaps they should look at some of the anti-Semitism which is springing up as a result of Israel defending itself against ruthless terrorism rather than at incautious examples of rhetoric by an unimportant man at an unimportant training session.

Then we have a picture of Nick Prettejohn, one of the candidates to run the BBC, when he was a mere 20 years old standing at a gathering of the Monday Club (a political group then within the Conservative Party). Some of those around him, dinnerjacketed and clearly merry, are giving Nazi salutes but there is no suggestion that he was and many former members of the Monday Club went on to become solid citizens and generally perfectly decent ones.

Guilt by association is not always a sound basis for arriving at judgment on an individual more than 30 years later. There is more than enough real evil in the world without having to manufacture the synthetic variety. I met Nick Prettejohn once and he did not impress me, while Bill Etheridge has, not for the first time, shown an appalling lack of judgment but there is no evidence that either is a closet Nazi, which is what some of the coverage is quite shamefully trying to imply. No wonder serious people are put off public life.

SORRY but I think politicians should interrupt their holidays and I do not often say that as I have always defended the right of world leaders to take a break like the rest of us. However you would have to go back centuries to find hordes of barbarians doing what the Islamic State is now doing in Iraq and Syria and it is no time to be building sandcastles.

I opposed intervention in Egypt, bombing Libya and then the suggestion we should bomb Syria.

This however is different. We are not talking about regime change but about the defence of civilisation itself against a crucifying, torturing bunch of true fanatics who even go in for mass burials of the living. They know no limits and if they set up the state of their dreams in that troubled region then the West will not be safe.

This is not the time to analyse what we got wrong in the past but to save our future and every decent country should join Assad and Obama in resisting, with whatever it takes, these devils - for that is what they are.

Hitler identified Jewish people by making them wear the Star of David. These dark forces identify Christians by painting N (for Nazarene) on their houses, then destroying them.

When West Berlin, a small dot in a sea of Soviet occupation, was feeling vulnerable JFK made his famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. Perhaps President Obama should say simply: "We are all Nazarenes."

IN THE days of steam trains and manual sorting you could post a letter on Sunday afternoon and it would arrive on Monday morning. Now, with mechanised sorting and high-speed choo-choos, we are going to have to post letters before 9am to ensure collection on the same day.

Next time Royal Mail wants a fresh logo it should choose a one-legged tortoise.

I ONCE had a cat Sweep, who lived to be 23. She had longish fur and from about the age of 16 she gave up grooming it. I had to do my best with a pair of scissors, a wet comb and when desperate by asking the vet to shave off the knots.

When she went in for an operation which involved a general anaesthetic I asked the vet to detangle her while asleep.

As Sweep aged she became less able to act quickly and I made her a house cat. She also hated the comb and scissors routine more and more until I did it less and less. Like many old folk she became thin with age but purred and ate and always passed check-ups at the vet's.

Nobody saw Sweep at that stage because she was a house cat but the Byrnes family, which went through exactly the same with its cat Claude, was less lucky. Concerned neighbours reported its bedraggled, thin appearance to the RSPCA and inspectors summarily put the poor animal down, denying the children who had known it all their lives the opportunity to say goodbye.

Supposing they had seen Sweep? Would they have taken the same, high-handed attitude?

It might have been embarrassing if they did because I was after all to become a vice-president of the RSPCA.

A THOUSAND state primaries have no men teachers at all. That is particularly unwelcome news given the huge rise in fatherless families for it means a boy can have no stable male role model until he is 11.

If it were the other way round women would be demanding positive discrimination.

IF YOU place an order in a shop the assistant will tell you there and then if it is out of stock. Order a book or DVD from Amazon and it will tell you if it is out of stock before you pay but Vodaphone takes you right through to a confirmed and paid for order before it tells you that it cannot actually deliver the item for a completely unspecified time.

Naturally the email which imparts this gloomy information comes from a no-reply address.

Yet this phone company is supposed to be at the forefront of cutting edge technology, urging us all to get the very latest device.

Physician, heal thyself.

And while you are at it get yourself someone who can understand what the customer understands by good service.